Archive for December, 2009

But that’s not what this blog post is about. This blog post is about catching up; the difference is in the consonants. The last two weeks after Yellowstone have been completely non-conducive to making blog posts. While it was true that FAST needed a little break from the intense level of focus and taxation that was required to publish our five installments of Da Stone, most of the lack of material was due to academic reasons. To come back from a ski trip behind in the homework game, with wads of finals approaching, didn’t exactly inspire me to whip out some more retarded ski oriented literature. But now I’m back at it.

Basically, here’s a brief photo summary of those two weeks.

As we were packing and preparing to leave West Yellowstone, with its vistas and picturesque scenery:

I realized that something needed to be said regarding the large volume of unbelievable facial hair present in West. Although a large percentage of the men’s field had faithfully stuck to the No Shave November pact, there were a few standouts. Chambo gets props for his win in the FULLEST BEARD category, while James Southam and Gordon Jewett were in a clear battle for the overall title and both using the IMACCULATE MOUSTACHE approach. Incidentally, they also happened to be the two fastest old guys:

And while it was pretty close between these two, I’d have to give the win to James. It was that extra centimeter of vertical on each end that really earned him the title of GREATEST MOUSTACHE OF THE SUPERTOUR:

When we arrived home, it was time to turn up the volume adjuster a little bit in preparation for Nationals. We ended the volume week with a local classic sprint, which turned out to be a game of “how many guys can FAST put in the A final…” Turned out we got 5 of the 8, and myself, David, and Tyson took the top three spots well ahead of UAF.

It was a good opportunity to experiment with racing techniques, and I seem to have been trying out different methods of starting; here, finding the one that is least effective. If there is nothing in contact with the snow, there can’t be much foreword propulsion:

There were also Masters heats… how about this line-up, huh? Terrifying:

At this point, it’s all about intensity and finals. We are starting a massive block of intervals for Nationals, and also taking heavily weighted tests left and right. Should be, you know, fairly low stress…